System of a Down

How Modern Christian Institutions Risk Harming Spiritual Formation

Hello, and welcome to this week’s new subscribers! I’m grateful you’re journeying with us as we explore The Great Omission and how we come together to resolve it.

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The Formation Gap

We are waist-deep in an extended exploration of what it means to be a deep disciple—someone who intends to become more like Jesus over time. A person of depth is increasingly awake or attuned to God, others, themselves, and the world around them, including creation and culture. Ultimately, a deep disciple loves more and more like Jesus—something the world could certainly use more of.

As we’ve discovered, the journey of becoming more like Jesus is best taken with a small group of like-hearted sojourners. These ecosystems purposefully feature five key elements: time, habits, community, intimacy, and instruction (we’re currently examining the third element: community). Jesus modeled all of these for us in spades.

We find these five elements in every kind of environment that helps one person become more like another. The most potent example is early childhood, which also happens to correspond to the time in our lives when our hearts are most supple and formative.

If our lives lack any of these five elements, we find ourselves in what we call the Formation Gap—one of the three primary problems driving The Great Omission (the lack of genuine disciple-making in the modern age).

Like the other two obstacles (the Discipleship Dilemma and the Forgotten Kingdom), most people are unaware of its existence. The lack of deep discipleship and its impact on individuals and cultures remains one of the best-kept secrets in modernity.

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The Anatomy of Ideas

One reason for the shallow state of discipleship today is that we often operate from a set of ideas we take for granted—without even thinking about them. An idea is an assumption, conclusion, or principle in which our hearts are rooted, but of which we’re generally unaware.

We all live within a set of cultural ideas (such as freedom, consent, the role of government, and gender roles) and individual ideas (including unconscious assumptions about our identity, value, and purpose). Many people never explore either set to determine if they are helpful or harmful. We simply live within them. But a deep person is keenly attuned to the ideas in both culture and the heart—and increasingly attuned to God’s ideas.

As we examine the element of community and its vital role in spiritual formation, we should humbly and courageously excavate the powerful ideas currently driving modern Christian institutions—and consider how those ideas are shaping discipleship.

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We Are What We Think?

I’ve sprinkled a few examples of these ideas into past posts—such as the overemphasis of the sermon in modern Western Protestantism. We’d be hard-pressed to find any other formative environment (addiction recovery groups, college, the military, marriage) that considers a 30-minute monologue to be the most formative event of the week.

The extraordinary emphasis we place on the sermon—and the celebrity status we bestow on those who preach them—points to the idea that human beings are primarily formed through instruction. This assumption can be traced back to Descartes’ incomplete and reductionist view of humanity: we are what we think.

Of course, instruction is essential to the faith. But we’ve lost many—if not most—of the other vital formative elements.

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Knowledge Trumps Character?

This idea—that we are what we think—pervades modern Christianity like a virus and continues to wreak havoc. The accumulation of knowledge is prized above who we are becoming—and that inevitably leads to harm, abuse, and the spread of dark ideas.

Western faith communities, in particular, continue to idolize and celebritize biblical teachers based on knowledge and charisma. Because we’re saturated in the idea that biblical accuracy matters more than biblical character, we tolerate and even defend staggering levels of corruption from teachers and theologians—so long as they deliver fresh insights with wit and charm.

And we often tolerate the same from ourselves.

This idea drives the expansion of ever-larger institutions. If we assume that knowledge is essential while character is optional, we don’t need to know our leaders—we simply show up to hear them speak. The bigger the auditorium, the better.

Likewise, we don’t need to be vulnerable with others either, so long as we receive our weekly dose of Scripture. Individuals get lost in large institutions. And that, it seems, may be an intentional point.

Several years ago, a world-famous apologist passed away, just as credible allegations surfaced about his abusive behavior toward women. He continued to defend the Gospel powerfully—even as he lived contrary to it. It’s hard to believe no one around him suspected anything. But would it have mattered? He built a massive, profitable institution that delivered helpful biblical information to millions.

In 2024, several celebrity teachers stepped down from leadership due to significant character failures. All had built impressive platforms that insulated them from the very people they were meant to serve.

Just this week, a globally renowned theologian passed away. Predictably, tributes have poured in from around the world—even as he and his church have long faced credible allegations of spiritual abuse, gaslighting, and harassment.

We’ve created a class of Christian celebrity leadership that bears little resemblance to Jesus—simply because we live under the idea that information is the hallmark of the Christian life. The result? Institutions and their perpetuation take precedence over genuine, care-filled, vulnerable discipleship.

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Spiritual Gifts Trump Character?

To a lesser extent, the same phenomenon occurs in communities that prioritize spiritual gifts and emotional experiences over the slow, steady journey of becoming more like Jesus in thought, behavior, relationships, and love.

I once attended the annual conference of a Christian organization where every staff member was required to meet with a “prophet.” Curious, I attended one of his sessions and spent the next 90 minutes shocked. This man, a board member and close friend of the ministry president, was extracting intimate details from staff under the guise of spiritual discernment. The entire thing reeked of control and spiritual abuse—later confirmed. Yet the behavior persists. For all intents and purposes, it’s a cult wrapped in evangelical language.

Some argue these are outliers—that most men and women in leadership sincerely desire to become like Jesus and serve others well. I think that’s true, though my own experience raises questions.

In my years working with various Western faith-based organizations, I’ve found that the larger the institution, the more it tends to exist to protect itself and the interests of its leaders, so long as it preaches their version of the Gospel.

But that is not the way of Jesus. As Bonhoeffer reminds us, when Christ calls us, He bids us to come and die.

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Spiritual Formation is a Team Sport

The journey to becoming like Jesus is ultimately relational, not just instructional. That means every institution claiming to make disciples should be structured in such a way that every person is invited to both know and be known. And being known cannot simply mean attending instruction-oriented events.

Maybe our institutions should encourage more dialogue and less monologue. Perhaps we should be invited into communities where it’s safe to be authentic—to express doubts, disagreements, and wrestle with the nuances of faith in a respectful setting.

If, as C.S. Lewis once said, “God works on us most through each other,” we might consider restoring a form of Christian community that was once the norm but is now largely lost.

I’m not arguing for the modern small group movement (which has its benefits), as questions remain about its effectiveness in guiding people to become more like Jesus. There is a different kind of community we need to recapture—one that is more committed, more vulnerable, and more sacrificial—authentic five-element communities.

If the point of life with Jesus is to be “conformed to His image,” that should mean we intend to become less angry, forgive enemies, give generously, steward creation well, grow relationally shrewd, suffer deeply with each other, and become less anxious, fearful, and controlling.

I’m not a revolutionary, and I doubt you are either. I love and respect our institutions, and I know good ministry happens through them. But if we glance at the list of transformations in the previous paragraph, can we not courageously and humbly ask if we are seeing evidence of such widespread, inner formation because of our institutions? That we not only know more, but we love like Jesus more? That a primary purpose of being part of an institutional community is intentional character formation?

Is that our expectation? Is it the expectation of our institutions?

And if we agree that this kind of deep formation only happens through our intimate, vulnerable interaction with God and others—are we accepting Jesus’ invitation to recreate and engage in such ecosystems and relationships?

It seems to me that followers of Jesus should lead the way in overcoming the modern plague of loneliness by recreating small, trusted communities that may appear radical…even to some of our existing institutions.

Duc in Altum,
Brian
Soil & Roots

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